Moments
by Light Under My Skin
Summary: Neville and Luna are different, awkward, shy, and all together… a perfect match. Here are five drabbles from five different moments of theirs. Written for the HPFC "Romantic Drabble Challenge."
1. Stupefy

Summary: Neville and Luna are different, awkward, shy, and all together… a perfect match. Here are five drabbles from five different moments of theirs throughout the years.

Written for the HPFC "Romantic Drabble Challenge"

Rules: Given a pairing, write at least five drabbles (less than 500 words) about them.

Pairing: Neville/Luna

1: Stupefy

Word Count: 432

As always, in their DA meetings, Harry would teach for a while, and then send them on their way. It was just what they did, and the members had long since settled into the easy rhythm of the sport, picking out their partners with ease.

Neville found Luna in the back, where she always was, messing with something or other. For a Ravenclaw, she never seemed to study or pay attention, though she did surprisingly know a lot. At the start of the DA, Neville had been inordinately worried about her, thinking that her airy demeanor would mean she didn't pay attention in fights, leading to pain, distraction, and guilt (on his part) after hurting her. But he was pleasantly surprised to see that she could fight.

Though how she kept her demeanor and still fought with perseverance and determination was beyond him (he'd learned that the magic inside Luna Lovegood was impossible to understand, unlike anyone else's in the sense that it didn't follow logic as all other magic did).

Perhaps, he thought to himself, as they lined up, that's why he liked her so much. He was logical and linear, planting one foot in front of the other, always walking in a straight line. But Luna was a dancer, leaping and curving, sometimes defying gravity all together and others spinning in one spot for a while. It was a reckless magic, a senseless pattern, and yet it was perfect, in its own way.

She was perfect.

"Ready?" he called to her, as they prepared to practice stunning one another. He'd already done this one extensively by himself, so he promised himself he'd go easy on her, though he should have known better. Luna had always been able to handle what anyone threw at her.

"Set," she called back, as she always did.

"Go!" he bellowed and, before he could even blink, a jet of red light was coming at her.

He hadn't even heart her _"Stupefy!"_

Oh yes, on top of her fighting skills, her reflexes were incredibly quick.

Neville had read about what happened when you were hit by the stunning spell. It hit you backward, and you were dizzy in blackness, before waking up again. Unlike fainting, when you were hit by the stunning spell, you could feel the time that'd passed when you woke up – but only after you'd awoken.

Still, as the jet of red light hit him square on the chest (a perfect hit) he couldn't help but think that, if it were Luna, he'd take a stunning spell – or worse – for her any day.


	2. Just Another Hogsmeade Visit

2: Just Another Hogsmeade Visit

Word Count: 295

"Er um, good afternoon Luna," he said awkwardly, standing in the light of her portrait hole.

"Good afternoon Neville," she said, her high voice dreamy as always, and perfect, oh so perfect.

Neville shook his head to clear the cobwebs, remembering why he was there.

"I'm erm, I mean, I'm here for a reason," he said.

"Oh are you? You didn't just wander here because of the fates?"

It would be no fate, if Neville were to "wander" to where Luna Lovegood was.

Not that he was here for her.

Well that was awkward.

"Well I'm, erm, here to pick up Sara." He said to her, "Sara Fawcett. We have a date." He felt the need to clarify, "In Hogsmeade. Today."

"Do you," Luna said, her voice unchanged, "I've never been on a date."

"Oh erm, I'm sorry about that."

She didn't seem bothered in the slightest, "No it's quite alright. I'm quite used to being alone."

You shouldn't be, Neville thought desperately, you really shouldn't be. I want to be with you – you don't have to be alone.

Of course he didn't say any of that. Speaking the entire truth – well that was what Luna did.

"Erm well," his heart was racing, his palms were sweating, "would you, erm, like to go to Hogsmeade with me next time?"

She smiled, and his heart lifted.

"I would like that."

At that moment, Sara exited the common room, taking his arm and leading him out. He called out a goodbye to her, one that she answered quickly. The entire evening with Sara was awkward and strained, especially seeing as they were only doing this to please their friends. But Neville didn't care in the slightest about this Hogsmeade trip.

He couldn't wait for the next one.


	3. Detention, McGonagall Style

3: Detention, McGonagall Style

Word Count: 495

He was older than she was, but not only that, they were different. Opposites. Ying and Yang. Where she believed in all sorts of magic – both real and not – his magic was on a whole different plane. It magic derived from bravery, fear, and determination, as he coaxed himself to understand basic principles, while hers flew every which way, whizzing by dangerously, sparks as lively and beautiful as she was.

She was in Ravenclaw, probably the most wander-brained of the lot. He was in Gryffindor and, though it had taken him all these years to find it, he was probably the bravest of the lot. Together, they were uneasy, imperfect, awkward – which, in it's own way, is perfection. Apart, they shone but, with a little bit of grease, they could shine all the brighter.

It was these thoughts, and others, that were running through Minerva McGonagall's head as they stood before her, awaiting punishment. She'd just caught them sneaking back to the Ravenclaw tower. He'd been walking her, as gentlemen do, and she'd been chatting about Nargles and Wifflesnouts and all sorts of fantastical things, when Draco Malfoy had caught them.

Really, all Professor McGonagall wanted to do was berate them for _getting_ caught_, _but with Malfoy there serving as Umbridge's personal lackey, she couldn't very well do that.

So instead, she pretended to frown at them. Neville was afraid, though trying not to show it in front of the lady, while Luna had caught on the moment she'd entered. She was uncanny, that one. Still, Minerva hoped she wouldn't say anything, in fear that if she did, Draco would understand her to be telling the truth, and not one of her airheaded schemes, and scurry back to Umbridge with the news.

"After hours," she pretended to snap at them, "I'll have none of this!"

Quickly, quickly, come up with a punishment that will bring them closer, that will _force _them to polish each other, to see how much they can shine together.

"In punishment for your actions-"

Malfoy then, had the audacity to interrupt her, "Punishment for being out after hours is lines… Professor," he added on snidely

Minerva forced herself not to shudder at those horrible, illegal lines that Umbridge was using.

"Yes well as it is, Mister Malfoy, you brought them to me and so I decide the punishment."

They both knew that she'd caught him before he could drag them off to Umbridge, but neither mentioned it.

"As it is, Mister Longbottom, Miss Lovegood, your punishment will be helping Professor Sprout around the greenhouses, as she is terribly behind."

If she'd bothered to look around the room, Minerva McGonagall would have seen the outrage on Draco's face, the happiness in Neville's eyes, and the complex understanding in Luna's demeanor. As it was, she turned around, effectively dismissing them, feigning boredom, while on the inside, she was as giddy as a school girl, eager to see what could come of her scheming.


	4. Sweet

4: Sweet

Word Count: 349

Between the two, everything was sweet.

It was sweet, how she would always wait for him, or he her, whenever they needed to go somewhere.

It was sweet, how she'd smile at him in the mornings, before sitting down next to him in the Great Hall, and nicking something off of his plate.

It was sweet, the first time he held her hand, when he was walking her to the Ravenclaw Tower one night after a DA meeting.

It was sweet how he'd open doors for her, carry her books for her, and say sweet nothings into her ear.

But their first kiss?

One might say that it was sweet. One would be oh-so-_terribly_ wrong.

The Battle of Hogwarts had just ended, and he'd nearly died when killing Nagini. She'd had ten _Avada Kedavra's _shot within one inch of her body, and yet both of them were still there, alive while all around them, their friends mourned the dead. He spotted her, from across the Great Hall, as she was coming in, nursing nothing other than a few singed hairs and a small cut on her arms. He saw her and, immediately, got up, taking powerful strides, making use of his full height to get to her as quick as possible.

He reached her, cupped her face tightly in his dirty, bloody hands, and kissed her with all he had.

He kissed her as he'd wanted to kiss her for the past two years. He kissed her in exhilaration – of their triumph, of their victory, of the fact that she wasn't dead. He kissed her as a man kisses a woman he loves. He kissed her as a desperate man drinks.

She responded equally. For someone typically so airy, she clung to him, her nails digging into him as she refused to let him go. She kissed him as if he were her air. She kissed him as if she were trying to devour him. She kissed him for longer than she thought a kiss could possibly last.

No, this kiss was not sweet. And neither, really were they.


	5. Magic

5: Magic

**Warning: Slightly AU**

Word Count: 384

Many people thought Luna Lovegood was strange and, really, they weren't far from the truth. It wasn't that there was anything wrong with her though, as some of her ruder peers insinuated, simply that she'd been raised to see the world with a different magic.

It was quite odd, seeing things your peers couldn't. She imagined it must be what Muggleborn witches and wizards feel like, before they learn about the Wizarding World, but of course she wouldn't know. Not that it mattered.

At least Muggleborns had each other, and others that could sympathize.

Luna wasn't complaining, necessarily, because she didn't know how. Surrounded by a world filled with such a plethora of magic, how could one complain? No, Luna didn't understand why one would complain. Why, you could simply look outside, to see the Veerlots floating like giants in the sky, the Urgnabs burrowing down under the grass. Of course, her classmates would be able to see these things too, but they couldn't understand, they had blinded themselves.

Worse of all, worse than any of them, was Neville Longbottom. _His_ magic was a linear thing, and he only saw magic in lines and grids. All the planes, all the swirls, were invisible to his eye.

Luna had met wizards like him, the Malfoys, the Lestranges. Being a Pureblood, she'd had to go to a few get-togethers, until she, like her father, had no longer been invited, shunned by the wizards who didn't see true magic.

Yet, unlike all the wizards that saw magic like he did, Neville wasn't cruel. He didn't desire money, or power, or the Dark Arts. Even though his magic ran in lines, his kindness was a circle, always accepting those that wished to be accepted.

It was it's own kind of magic, in a way.

Really, Neville stood out as much as Luna did. Where she saw magic others didn't, his magic worked against his being, yet he'd found a way to bring them together. He was special, she could see it around him. He was braver than any other man and that would bring him more, in life, than anything else.

Luna smiled at her husband, basking in how special, how unique, how utterly extraordinary he was.

She guessed she wasn't as alone as she'd thought after all.


End file.
